News

CRS Clinical Research Services, a full-service contract research organisation (CRO) based in Andernach and specialising in early-phase trials, has announced a long-term strategic partnership with Bayer HealthCare that involves CRS taking over Bayer’s clinical pharmacology units in Germany.

Bayer has entered into an antibody-drug conjugate collaboration with Seattle Genetics in a deal that could be worth $520 million to the US biotech.

An official investigation to determine whether pharmaceutical companies are colluding with pharmacists to rig the market for ‘specials’ prescription drugs in the UK, and are thereby artificially inflating the amount the NHS is shelling out for them, could soon be underway.

Regulators in European have given the green light to Astellas Pharma and Medivation’s oral prostate cancer drug Xtandi.

Pfizer’s patent on Viagra has expired in the UK and other states in Europe, paving the way for the erectile dysfunction dysfunction market to be flooded with generics of the  blockbuster.

The US Food and Drug Administration has granted breakthrough therapy designation to Novartis’ serelaxin as a treatment for patients with acute heart failure.

Sanofi has presented promising late-stage data on U300, an improved version of its blockbuster insulin Lantus.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co has submitted its gut-selective monoclonal antibody vedolizumab for approval in the USA for moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, the two most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has sprung swiftly out of the blocks and launched its generic version of Viagra immediately after Pfizer’s patent on the erectile dysfunction blockbuster expired in nine key European markets.

Belgium’s Cardio3 BioSciences has launched an initial public offering in Brussels and Paris to help finance its late-stage stem cell treatment for heart failure.

Celgene Corp has presented mid-stage data from a pair of trials which demonstrate the promise of using its myeloma blockbuster Revlimid in combination with Roche and Biogen Idec’s big-selling monoclonal antibody Rituxan for various non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.

In the UK, the Department of Health has laid out plans confirming that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will be responsible for assessing new drugs as part of value-based pricing in six months’ time.

Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and engineering giant Siemens have signed on as founding members of a new consortium set up by Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) to address challenges such as costs, regulatory compliance and processes to bring drugs from trials to markets.

South Korea has topped a 15-nation league table in terms of improvements made to its healthcare system over the last five years, while Spain’s health service is the least-improved, according to new consumer research.

UK charity Target Ovarian Cancer has launched a Clinical Trials Information Centre online to address significant disparities both among women with ovarian cancer and clinicians between the desire to participate in clinical trials and the opportunities to do so.